[Magdalen] Railroads

[Charles Wohlers]

Well, my grandfather was also a railroad man - kind of. He was on the board 
of directors of the Missouri Pacific, and was also involved in a takeover of 
the NY Central in the 50's.

Up here in VT, Woodbury also had a RR spur, but it was only for access to 
the local granite quarry - didn't go near the town center (such as it is) 
and AFAIK never carried passengers. It lasted until the 30's or so when 
folks stopped building with granite. It's only ~7 miles long and climbed 
~700' in that distance. The line it connected to, the Lamoille Valley RR, 
lasted until 1996, and until then they were running trains over one of two 
RR covered bridges in the state - less than ten miles from here. It's now in 
the process of being turned into one of the longest rail-trails in New 
England - just over 100 miles long.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: Lynn Ronkainen
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2016 3:42 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Railroads

My grandad in MN was a lifer with the railroad. Not sure which line. He 
retired in the late 50s
Lynn


Sent from my iPhone

On May 30, 2016, at 2:02 PM, Joseph Cirou <romanos at mindspring.com> wrote:







-----Original Message-----
> From: Cantor03--- via Magdalen <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Sent: May 30, 2016 12:46 PM
> To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
> Cc: Cantor03 at aol.com
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Railroads
>
>
>
> In a message dated 5/30/2016 11:51:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> polycarpa3 at ckt.net writes:
>
> Ditto  for my home town, with later dates.
>
> More railroad stuff:
>
> In, say, 1950, there were no less than four passenger train routes
> from the Twin Cities of MN to the Twin Ports (DuluthMN/SuperiorWI)
> Now there is one route (as near as I can determine) provided by
> Amtrak..
>
> The original four were:
>
> (1) The Great Northern with a route entirely within MN, and the furthest
> west
> of the series.  This is the route Amtrak uses.
>
> (2) The Northern Pacific, with a route hugging the MN-WI line and
> essentially
> replaced by I-35.  Portions of this route are still used by small, 
> regional
> railroads, and part of it is public trails.  My hometown spur  connected 
> to
> this route at Rush City, MN.
>
> (3 The Soo Line with a route  mostly in Wisconsin, and the one that we
> always
> used.  A chunk of this is still used by an excursion ;private railway 
> from
> Osceola, WI to Minneapolis.  The rest is abandoned with some of it 
> trails.
>
> (4) The Omaha Road (C&NW) with a route far to the east nearly  completely
> within Wisconsin.  Much of this trackage is abandoned, with some use  as
> public trails.
>
> What I wouldn't give to travel any of these routes now.
>
> Ditto for riding the three crack trains Twin Cities to Chicago (The
> Burlington
> Zephr, the C&NW 400, and the Milwaukee Road Hiawathas).
>
> End of trains babble.
>
>
> David Strang.
>
> David
I think I took the 400 once with my parents as a child, I don't remember 
exactly, I remember sitting in the observation car of the Hiawatha, but I 
don't remember being to St Paul that often as a child. My grandfather was a 
fireman for the CNW from 1910 to 1940 when he retired at the age of 70 the 
same year as his wife, Rose died as the tresult of a tragic fall. My father 
and his brothers were all raised in St. Paul and Stillwater, MN.

My grandfather Leon moved in with us in the late 40's. He was buried in 
Stillwater, and was entitled to free passage for the final trip. There is a 
picture of the 4 sons who all came to Chicago for the funeral.

Joe